By Ojoma Akor
Sydani Group, a leading international development partner headquartered in Nigeria says it has provided innovative solutions towards tackling challenges in the areas of health, research, agriculture and other sectors in Nigeria.
The Group Managing Partner (GMP) of Sydani Group, Sidney Sampson stated this in Abuja during a media round-table organized by the firm to mark its seventh anniversary.
Sampson said the solutions were provided through the diverse projects implemented by the organization, adding that the successes recorded have further contributed to socio-economic development in the country.
While saying that the organization currently, has presence across seven countries, he said it has continued to expand and provide support to other countries too such as Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Kenya, and Nepal.
He said, “the organization has grown in leaps and bounds since 2018, and now has over 130 full-time staff working across different sectors, driving impact in different areas across different nations. Our strategic impact stretches across different domains. For instance, in the health sector, we have done tremendous work supporting the health system, not just at the national level in Nigeria, but also at the state levels and the LGA levels.”
He said beyond the shores of Nigeria, the organization has also helped governments put forward strategic documents that help them gain or attract resources to be able to strengthen the health system.
He said, “We have been able to conduct very impactful interventions that saved a lot of lives. In the education sector, we are building a technology space and being able to drive very impressive technological innovations and advancements. There is also a lot we are doing now in the agricultural sector and the human capital development sector. We are working to continue to empower people. Now we are in our seventh year. We believe there is still much more to do. The more you work and the more you provide solutions to problems, the more you see other problems that you need to solve.
“We have done a lot but we know that it is still a scratch on the surface of what can be done. So we want to be able to deepen the impact, go more in-depth, make sure that the work we are doing is actually being felt by beneficiaries. We want to deepen the impact across health, education, technology, agriculture and ensure that we are wearing that lens of people who come to see the change in the way things are done. And beyond deepening the impact, also broadening our scope of where we can do it.”
He said the organization would continue to collaborate and partner with stakeholders, and governments at different levels.
“We know that while we continue to do what we do, the governments are the primary drivers of the change that we want. We want to do that work hand-in-hand with the government, ensuring that whatever we are doing is 100% aligned with government policies and directions, as well as making sure that it is catalytic in a way that the government truly is able to make that change,” he said.
Dr Obiamaka Enwezor Program Manager at Sydani Group, Dr. Obiamaka Enwezor, said one of the major programmes the organization implemented under health is the Saving lives and livelihood project (SLL) funded by the MasterCard Foundation.
She said over 3,000 health care workers were trained across 10 states, noting that SLL Phase II supported the advancement of Nigeria’s immunisation data governance by supporting the review of the country’s National Health Management Information System tools along with partners.
“We reached 238,158 individuals through the project from January to June. We are also currently supporting 517 health facilities across the country,” she stated.
She said another project SPAC-Niger commenced in April 2025, and was targeted at enhancing vaccine-preventable disease surveillance across six states in Nigeria.
“One of the major highlights of this was that we were able to support Niger state to conduct its first-ever multi-hazard risk assessment, and through this risk assessment, we were able to predict some of the hazards that would occur; floods, and cholera outbreaks. And with this, we were able to provide the information to the states and also provide mitigants,” she added.
She also said that the project helped to optimize the disease surveillance reporting system. According to her, following the work in Niger state, the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) invited the organization to support other states in conducting their own multi-hazard risk assessment.
She said that the STRICAN project, implemented in collaboration with the USCDC and funded by the Task Force for Global Health, targets the high burden of zero-dose children in Niger State. It is focused on four LGAs—Katcha, Kontagora, Mariga, and Rafi and is aimed at reducing the burden by 25% but however exceeded expectations by reaching 27%; marking a major step toward improved vaccination coverage.
Also, she said another project which was implemented in collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and the United Task Force for Global Health focused on identifying and eliminating, immunizing zero-dose children across a cumulative 10 LGs.
“From the implementation of the STRICAN project, we successfully vaccinated 13,423 children under five years in four LGAs. Of this, about 6,700 were zero-dose,” she said.
A research scholar with the organisation, Dr. Stephen Asaolu, said Sydani Group had led the development of several knowledge projects while actively supporting the design, and documentation of several projects and research initiatives.
He said, ” In a space of about two years, we have produced extensive articles that have been published in international peer-reviewed journals. And these journals have, in that period, gathered more than 200 citations. Apart from our full-time in-house researchers, we also have a network of subject matter experts that are available anytime. We also implement research for different clients, both nationally and internationally. We design study tools innovatively, both adapted to the one that has existed before and the development of new study tools using existing and new framework, ands also conduct data analysis. We do field management, and we conduct trainings.”
The Agriculture Division Lead, Godfrey Petgrave said there is a lot of emphasis on digital agriculture because low productivity was identified as a major challenge particularly faced by small-holder farmers in the agric-space,
He said limited access to quality inputs is as a result of many other problems, including logistics issues, bad road networks and poor access to markets.
“We have identified from various assessments conducted at the farm level in the rural areas that if the system is digitalized, farmers can use simple mobile devices to get the inputs that they require,” Petgrave said.
He highlighted that the organization was trying to improve the whole value chain and encouraging farmers to adopt good farming practices.
